The Dragon Mistress' Mud Bath
by DeraldSny
Summary: After a freak storm and crash landing, Clair has to find her missing Pokemon... but she ends up finding peril instead! Will she escape?


My first Pokemon story, starring one of my favorite Gym Leaders... hope you enjoy reading!

The Dragon Mistress' Mud Bath

A Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver Fan Fiction

by Derald Snyder

"Argh! Where did this freak storm come from?!"

Gym Leader Clair of Blackthorn City held an arm in front of her face, trying to see through the heavy rain that suddenly obscured her vision, while holding tightly to her Aerodactyl with her other arm. The ancient flying Pokemon voiced its displeasure in a cry of distress, not handling the downpour very well due to its Rock-typing. Thunder then rumbled in the sky, causing panic to well up in Clair's chest...

"Aerodactyl! Go lower!" she cried loudly. "We're sitting ducks up here!" The Pokemon promptly complied, diving slightly to lower its altitude... Ideally, they would have just landed and rode out the storm, but the fact that they were flying over a thick forest precluded such an option. As it was, the two were now just barely skimming above the trees, though this at least gave the dragon trainer something to see, so they weren't flying completely blind... At that moment, Clair's fears were realized as a large lightning bolt struck from the clouds.

Fortunately, the bolt struck a tall tree nearby.

Unfortunately, a smaller arc of electricity from said bolt struck Clair and Aerodactyl directly, both screaming in pain as they subsequently lost control of their flight path, Clair's vision tunneling before she blacked out completely...

"Ohhhhhhhnnnn..."

Clair slowly roused, laying on her frontside, her head tilted to the right... She could feel wet grass underneath her, and a slight breeze moving her long blue ponytail, which was a bit frizzed from the thunderbolt... Her entire body felt sore, no doubt from her crash landing. The gym leader slowly began to move her limbs, but felt no sharp stabs of pain that would indicate anything was broken, to her relief...

Eventually, Clair managed to push herself up to a sitting position on her knees, as she slowly rotated and stretched her body, checking herself to ascertain that nothing was broken... Fortunately, it seemed the worst damage had occurred to her cape, which was torn in two... As she ran her hands over her thighs, she realized something was missing...

(My pokeballs!) Looking down, she realized that the belt her balls were usually set in was gone- most likely, it had caught a tree branch and snapped off. "Well that's just great..." she sighed to herself. At least the rain had ceased, though the skies were still clouded over, an occasional rumble of thunder echoing over the forest...

Groaning, Clair picked herself up to her feet, somewhat unsteady, leaning against a tree for balance... Looking around, she realized she couldn't see Aerodactyl anywhere. Obviously she'd been thrown from its back at some point, though she could see no broken branches or other signs that would have indicated where her Pokemon was...

"Lance is going to kill me..." Clair sighed despairingly. "I promised I'd take good care of Aerodactyl when he gave it to me..." Still, she knew just standing here wasn't going to accomplish anything, so she began to walk, slowly at first to make sure of her balance, as she began her search for her missing Pokemon...

About a minute later, Clair emerged from some brush into a clearing, which was partially flooded, tufts of grass growing here and there, a river flowing nearby... and at the other end of the clearing was ...

"Aerodactyl!" The Fossil Pokemon was laying on its backside in a pile of brush, unmoving, having fainted from the combination of the lightning and its subsequent crash landing. However, Clair could discern that its chest was moving slightly, indicating it was still alive, at least.

At once the dragon trainer started across the field towards her downed Pokemon, trying to keep to the grass as best she could... But then a misstep caused Clair's foot to plunge almost the top of her boot in a mud puddle, the sudden loss of balance causing her to pitch forward, instinctively putting her hands out to break her fall, which were quickly buried past the wrists in the muck.

"Ugh!" The bluenette grunted in disgust. Thankfully it wasn't too hard to extract her hands, after which she simply pulled her leg out of her buried boot, making it easier to retrieve said footwear from the sucking mud.

"Well, that could have gone better..." Clair sighed to herself as she slid her soiled boot back on, sitting on a tuft of grass to avoid getting any dirtier. "Now I'll have to rinse off in the river..." Standing, she spared a quick glance at Aerodactyl before turning and heading toward the river in question.

This proved to be a bad move, however, as one of the grass tufts Clair was walking collapsed under her weight, sending her plunging with both feet into the watery brown mud, sinking almost to her knees in an instant.

"Oh, *no*...!" She gritted her teeth as she started pulling at her left leg, only for her right leg to sink in deeper, now feeling the mud directly on her skin... The sudden sinking action causing her to lose her balance and fall on her rump in the mud, which immediately soaked into her panties...

"Ugh, *disgusting*!" Clair moaned as she tried to right herself, the muck gurgling as it took her in further, her rear end now pressing into the surface... "How deep *is* this stuff?!" she growled as she twisted her hips back and forth, which only further agitated the mud, causing her to sink to her waist... At that moment, realization dawned on her.

"Dear Arceus... is this quicksand?!" She looked down, seeing her own face partially reflected in the watery surface, though the muck bulged up around where she'd sunk in... The bluenette tried to dig out the mud in front of her, but it only loosened the mud, which caused her to settle down further... "This can't be happening! I'm a Dragon Master! I can't be defeated by some stupid mud...!" Realizing her current tactic wasn't working, she instead laid her forearms on the surface, before pushing down and leaning forward, to try and extract herself that way...

Only for her arms to sink in and disappear beneath the quicksand. Panicking, Clair tried to yank her arms out, only for the mud's suction to clamp down on them, causing her to sink a few more inches, her bosom now pressing into the muck...

"No..." The dragon master's voice cracked as tears began to stream down her cheeks in despair. She could just imagine her cousin standing over her, a stern look on his face as he berated her for being so stupid... "Forgive me, Lance..." She continued to half-heartedly struggle in her entrapment, part of her still unwilling to concede defeat...

By this point, her struggles had churned the river mud into a thick, consistent semi-liquid, which sucked and caressed every part of her submerged body... it felt almost like a full-body massage, kneading her sore muscles with its moist thickness, the dull pain she had been feeling since her crash slowly ebbing away...

Clair let out a soft moan, her peril temporarily forgotten as she continued to slowly twist and turn her body in the soft quicksand... She sank no further, having reached her buoyancy point, though the mix of water and soil continued to clamp down on her with every move she made... The gym leader continued to scissor her arms and legs through the muck, slowly, methodically, no longer trying to escape, but just to feel the thick mass slowly flow around her...

Clair sighed in contentment as she let her head fall back, feeling her long ponytail pressing slightly into the mud... feeling the quicksand suck slightly at her bosom as she leaned back and relaxed in the mire's embrace... Hearing a chirping sound, she opened her eyes, seeing a lone Pidgey flying across her vision...

(Flying... crashing...! AERODACTYL!)

Clair gasped as jerked upright, coming back to reality. "Argh! What am I *doing*?!" Craning her head to look behind her, she saw Aerodactyl was still unconscious, with no signs of rousing. "Ugh, how could I let myself get *seduced* by this crap...!" She resumed her struggles in earnest, but the quicksand was just as thick as before, the bluenette only successful in extracting her right arm, the river mud otherwise not giving an inch...

The dragon trainer was forced to stop, panting slightly from fatigue. It was becoming clear that she would never be able to escape this mud on her own... Which meant there was only one thing left to do...

Swallow her pride.

Taking a literal swallow, Clair breathed in deeply before shouting, "HELP! SOMEONE HELP ME, I'M STUCK!" She took another deep breath. "I'M SUNK IN QUICKSAND! SOMEONE HELP, PLEASE!" She knew there wasn't much chance of anyone else being in this forest, especially after that storm, but what else could she do?

However, about a minute later, there was a rustling in the brush on the other side of the river... Hope welled up in Clair as she looked to see who it was...

However, it wasn't a human, but rather a long, blue, serpentine Pokemon that emerged from the foliage. "Drag-aaaiiir!" it cried upon locking eyes with its master.

"Dragonair!" Clair gasped, feeling a wave of relief wash over her. "Wait, how did you get out of your pokeball?"

Her question was quickly answered, as a human emerged from behind Dragonair, one that was a very familiar face... "Clair, is that you?"

"E... Ethan?!" the gym leader cried out in surprise. It was indeed him, the black-haired boy from New Bark Town that had given her a lesson in humility not too long ago... (Well, at least it's not Lance...)

"Y-yeah," Ethan chuckled nervously as he put a hand behind his head. "Some people said they saw a trainer and her Pokemon get struck by lightning and go down in the forest, so I volunteered to go check it out. Never thought it'd be you though..."

"Indeed..." Clair felt her face heating up. "Well, as you can see, I have been completely and thoroughly humiliated... Getting struck by lightning, crashing in the forest, losing my Pokemon... and now, hopelessly stuck in this stupid quicksand." She slapped the surface with her free arm in frustration. "Honestly, the only way this day could get worse is if Lance found out about this..."

"I won't tell," Ethan promised, "But we do have to get you out of there..."

"Draaa!" Dragonair took the initiative, slithering through the river and over the surface of the quicksand, wrapping it's long tail around it's master's chest, before beginning to try and pull her out... Clair could feel the quicksand's suction clamping down on her body again, despite her Pokemon's efforts... "It's no use, Dragonair, you don't ave enough leverage..."

"Here, let me help!" said Ethan as he took a pokeball off his own belt. "Go, Feraligatr!" The Big Jaw Pokemon materialized with a roar... only to stop, blinking in confusion at the strange scene before it.

"Help Dragonair pull Clair out of the mud!" the young trainer ordered. Feraligatr nodded in comprehension, swimming through the river to the other side... Dragonair, meanwhile, stretched its head out to the reptilian Pokemon, keeping its tail firmly wrapped around Clair. Feraligatr then grabbed Dragonair around the neck, though not in a choking manner...

"Now, PULL!" Ethan cried. Feraligatr began trying to shift its weight backwards, while Dragonair tugged at its master's body with all it's might...

Clair grunted at the feeling of the mud thickly sucking at her, unwilling to give up its prize... but then, she felt one of her legs pop out of her boot, sliding free... then her other leg also dislodged from its footwear... "I... I think it's working!" she gasped... At that moment, the mud's suction broke, causing all three of them to tumble into the river with a splash. The dragon trainer jumped up with a scream, from the shock of going from lukewarm mud to ice-cold water in an instant.

"Draaaago!" Dragonair cried in delight as it coiled around it's trainer, happy that she was now free. Clair couldn't help but smile as she scratched its snout affectionately.

"Good job, Feraligatr. Return," said Ethan as he recalled his Pokemon, watching as Clair and Draginair made their way over to him, taking Clair's hand in order to help her onto the riverbank.

"Thank you," the gym leader said politely as she stepped onto dry land. "So tell me, how did you find Dragonair? I highly doubt it was dumb luck..." Her question was answered as another Pokemon ran up to them, carrying another pokeball in its mouth.

"Good boy, Furret!" Ethan praised as took the pokeball, giving his Pokemon a pat on the head. "Now go and see if you can find any others!"

"Fur, Furret!" the critter nodded before dashing back into the brush.

"Oh, so that's how..." Clair muttered as she took the pokeball from Ethan, discovering it was empty. "I wonder if this is Aerodactyl's ball..." Turning around held the ball in the direction of her downed Pokemon. "Return!"

Sure enough, the beam shot out, engulfing Aerodactyl and transforming it into energy, which beamed back into the pokeball. "Thank goodness... now I don't have to worry about leaving him behind..."

The younger boy nodded in satisfaction. "Well, that's two of your Pokemon... now to find the others. Come on, we better go after Furret..." He turned to walk away...

"Just a moment," said Clair. "How am I going to explain my wretched condition when we get back to civilization?" She indicated her bare feet and torn cape.

"Well, you *did* crash in the woods," Ethan shrugged. "As for your boots, just say you lost them in the mud when you were going to check on Aerodactyl... we'll just leave out the part where you got stuck in quicksand."

The gym leader sighed. "Fair enough... Dragonair, would you mind if I rode on you? I'd rather not walk around this forest in my bare feet..." The dragon Pokemon nodded in assent, letting its trainer climb on its back, before slithering after Ethan...

"So let's see..." Ethan muttered to himself. "You've got a Gyarados, a Kingdra, and another Dragonair, if I recall..."

"That's right," Clair nodded. "I really appreciate your helping me out, Ethan... b-but don't think this will mean I'll go easy on you next time we battle, either..."

"I wouldn't want you to, anyway," the boy shrugged.

"Right, of course... just making sure..."

And with that, the two went on their way, to find the rest of Clair's Pokemon...

~*Fin*~


End file.
